How to Trim Marijuana

This article was co-authored by Lauren Kurtz. Lauren Kurtz is a Naturalist and Horticultural Specialist for the City of Aurora in Colorado. She currently manages the Water-Wise Garden at Aurora Municipal Center for the Water Conservation Department.

There are 18 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page.

Marijuana plants must be well cared-for and carefully harvested. Wear gloves and choose the time you trim your plants carefully. Trim the top off your plant to allow the leaves to get more light. Remove dead, yellow leaves and smaller buds from the lower portion of the plant. Don’t over-prune your marijuana plant or you could diminish its growth potential.

Use the right tools. Marijuana plants are fragile and can be sensitive to rough treatment. Trimming your plant must be done carefully. Sharp sewing shears or a sharp kitchen knife should be adequate to trim your plant.[2]

Arrange a system to separate your trimmings. You should not simply discard the leaves you trimmed. They can be used to make marijuana foodstuffs or hashish. So before trimming your marijuana plants, set three cookie sheets or other wide containers near the plants you’ll be trimming. On one sheet, set untrimmed buds. On the second sheet, set newly trimmed buds. And on the last sheet, set the leaves and other plant matter you trim from the plant.[4]

Harvest your plant at the appropriate time. The top of your marijuana plant should have a cluster of white hairs sticking out the top of it. These are the plant’s pistils, or reproductive organs. As the plant ages, these pistils will change from white to brown. When about 70% of the pistils have darkened to a reddish brown, your plant is ready for harvest.[5]

Decide whether to wet trim or dry trim. Most people trim their marijuana plants before drying them. This is known as a “wet trim.” A wet trim makes it easier to separate leaves from buds, and produces better-looking buds. However, some people trim the plants after the buds of the plant have dried. This is known as a “dry trim.” This is the preferred method of trimming in a low-humidity environment, since the leaves will slow the drying process and you want the buds to dry slowly.[6]

Clip the fan leaves. The fan leaves are the large leaves that have five distinct points – a large, long point in the center and two smaller points on either side. Fan leaves can be plucked with your fingers or clipped with scissors or shears.[7]

Some people choose to clip their fan leaves later, after they’ve cured the plant. This slows down the drying process and produces more flavorful buds.

Trim the sugar leaves. The sugar leaves are those that emerge from the buds themselves. They are so short that their stems cannot be seen. Only their tips are visible. Use your scissors to snip them off.[8]

Leave the buds on the plant. Generally, it’s a good idea to leave the buds you want (the ones close to the top of the plant) on the plant in order to slow the drying process. If you’re in a high-humidity environment, you might need to remove the buds in order to advance the drying process.[9]

Hang the branches to cure. When the bud-bearing branches have been removed and partitioned into individual pieces, they must be cured (dried). Using string or twist ties, hang the branches on your laundry line so that all parts are exposed to air. Hang your plants in a room with a temperature of about 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21 degrees Celsius) and no warmer than 85 degrees Fahrenheit (29 degrees Celsius).[10]

Use heavy ventilation in the form of a fan or a draft to help dry the branches at first.

As they dry, gradually decrease the ventilation to increase the moisture in the room, but never let the moisture exceed about 50%.

Don't expose your harvested plants to direct sunlight, heat, or moisture. The latter is especially bad, as it can produce mold, which can ruin a crop.

The goal is for your branches to slowly, naturally dry, so that when you smoke the buds, they produce a pleasing flavor. This may take upwards of a week.

Dispose of your plant. After removing all the buds, clip the rest of the leaves from all of the branches. There's no right way to do this. A firm tug on each leaf stalk might be one person's preferred method, while clipping might be another's. Once a marijuana plant has been totally trimmed of its buds and leaves, it should be disposed of. Place it in your compost bin or put it out with the rubbish.[11]

Remove dead leaves. As harvest time approaches, you'll want to begin reaching into the branches of the live plant and removing all of the dead and dying fan leaves (identifiable by their yellow hue) from the branches. This process allows the plant to focus as much energy as possible on growing healthy leaves, rather than wasting energy maintaining leaves that may die anyway. A gentle tug, sometimes firm, is all that's required to remove most leaves.[12]

Cut all branches and shoots that are not directly connected to the trunk. As branches grow out from the main stalk of the plant, they will in turn develop shoots and branches of their own. However, they will struggle to get enough light and sap energy from the leaves located at the ends of the main branches. Trim these leaves and shoots away.[13]

Cut away the leaves from the top of the plant. If your main stalk has leaves sprouting straight up and out from it, trim them. This will not only allow the branches to get more light, but will also stimulate new branch growth.[14]

Cutting the top of your plant off is crucial if you have limited vertical growing space.

FIM or top your plant. FIMing refers to the process of cutting part of a recent shoot (known as a "top") from your plant in order to double the number of buds it produces. "Topping" mean to remove the whole shoot down to the base. FIMing also causes your plant to grow out rather than up.

Topping and FIMing produce slightly different results. Research which is best for your setup.

To FIM your marijuana plant, locate a new shoot, then use your shears or other trimming instrument to snip two-thirds of the shoot’s length.[15]

FIMing is not without risks. Every time you clip a shoot, you increase the risk that your plant will get a disease.

Super crop your plant. Super cropping refers to the practice of squeezing a branch of the plant firmly, thereby partially crushing its tissue. This will cause the plant to heal and rebuild the branch more strongly, and allow for more efficient circulation of nutrients and water within the plant.[16]

Select an old yet still supple branch, one that is still green, not brown and woody.

Pinch the mid-point of the branch between your thumb and index finger. With your opposite hand, pinch the branch at a point just above the spot your other hand is pinching it.

Bend the branch gently back and forth in an arc. Increase the angle of the arc gradually until you’ve heard the branch crack. You should also be able to see some white discoloration at the joint you’ve been working.

Rest the bent branch on top of or against a nearby branch to support its weight.

Pluck low-lying buds. If you see small buds sprouting from the lower portion of your plant, pluck or clip them off. These small buds will only drain energy from the larger and more plentiful buds growing near the top of the plant.[17]

Don’t prune too often. After trimming your plant, it needs time to recover and heal. Trim your plant no more than once every three or four days. Often, your plant will only need to be trimmed twice a month. Prune more often during your plant’s early vegetative stage (when it first produces leaves) and toward the end of its flowering (bud-producing) stage.[18]

Community Q&A

You can try this, but it will decrease the health of your plant and potentially reduce the THC in your harvest. Keep the lighting schedule consistent and use a high power grow light. Trimming and drying is best done inside where humidity levels are more consistent.

You should trim your plant early in its life and later, just before harvest. Trim your plant when it shows signs of needing a trim. For instance, always trim dead, diseased, or damaged leaves, and trim buds that shoot out low on the main stalk.

You should trim your plant at harvest time. You should also pluck off sick leaves whenever you see them during normal growth periods. Don't overdo the plucking until harvest time, however; the leaves are your plants lungs.

About This Article

This article was co-authored by Lauren Kurtz. Lauren Kurtz is a Naturalist and Horticultural Specialist for the City of Aurora in Colorado. She currently manages the Water-Wise Garden at Aurora Municipal Center for the Water Conservation Department.

Reader Success Stories

A

Anonymous

Sep 13, 2017

"To trim the tiny buds at the inside bottom of the plant. Although it did not tell me if I could use those to make butter, I am assuming that I can because it would qualify the same as using the trimmed healthy leaves."..." more

MK

Marcos Kaplan

May 5, 2016

"It's almost time I did it. Thanks for confirming for me, now I'm sure to do the best possible!"

SL

Sammy Lang

Oct 6, 2016

"Great details shared. Explained and broken down well, and I feel confident to try methods."

EP

Evelyn Perez

Jun 9, 2017

"I'm growing myself and just needed to verify the methods I'm using already."